The main objective of the present contribution is to analyze the effect of composition, coverage and Te doping in the surface composition and catalytic behavior of supported-nanoscalecl MOVNb(Te)O catalysts. Different spectroscopy techniques combine to afford such objective. The composition of the surface species has been studied by Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopies, whereas it has been performed several pyridine adsorption experiments to quantify the number of acid sites on the surface of catalysts. The nature of reaction intermediates and the capability of the samples to adsorb them have been studied by FTIR spectroscopy combined with the adsorption of propene. The results have shown that tellurium induces several changes in the structure and catalytic properties of MoVNb catalytic materials, improving the reaction yield to the desired acrylic acid during the propane oxidation reaction. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.